For Hub City Times

MARSHFIELD — All genealogists, but especially those with German roots, are welcome to attend an upcoming program about using maps and gazetteers in their research.

At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16, in the Felker Foundation Local History Room at Everett Roehl Marshfield Public Library, Don Litzer of Merrill will present “From Place Name to Heimat: German Geography for Genealogists.” Litzer’s program is part of the library’s grand opening week celebration.

Finding out about places in Germany can be challenging, not only due to Germany’s complex history but because of many Americans’ unfamiliarity with the German language. Litzer shows how to use print and Internet resources to become more familiar with German geography, to identify places in gazetteers and plot them on maps, and to determine if records exist to enlighten researchers about their ancestors.

Litzer, assistant director and head of adult services at Merrill’s T.B. Scott Free Library since 2009, grew up on a dairy farm near Halder and graduated from Marathon High School. For more than 40 years, he has researched his own ancestry, which extends back to Sweden; Pomerania and Kashubia, German and Slavic regions located in present-day Poland; the southwest German Pfalz region; Switzerland; and Bohemia.